Volume Two of "A Mandolin Christmas" digs a bit deeper into the traditional Christmas canon, and reaches a little farther back in time. Some of these velvety melodies are centuries old. There's a remarkable, almost mystical quality in these ancient carols: they carry the mood of Christmas, even the less widely-known ones, embedded in their very fabric somehow.    

In our modern high-speed digital culture, Christmas music is maybe the only "popular music" still rooted in the Middle Ages, and also in acoustic instruments. These arrangements are at once simple and yet sophisticated. The crystalline tone of Karen's mandolin with Will's jazz-infused classical guitar serve the music so elegantly.  You can almost hear the fire crackling and see the lights twinkling on the tree. There's a wealth of fantastic, more modern Christmas music as well, but no matter how progressive we are in our other musical tastes, there's still a wide appeal for these old carols. They immediately invoke all Christmases past. They remind us and inspire us of the sense of well-being from our own childhoods, and that of our children's. 

This is a record that will be a lovely accompaniment to any holiday atmosphere. It has a sound that warms up a room instantly and still leaves space in the air for both lively conversation, and the serenity that comes from taking a break from the bustle of our everyday lives.  

Will recorded, mixed, mastered and generally magicked this recording into life. . 

Will plays guitar, Karen plays mandolin: it doesn't get any more "duo" than this. Together we came up with arrangements, harmonies, design ideas and the mission of sharing the beauty of acoustic Christmas music, and the sense of well-being it inspires and reminds us of. 

Karen Mal and Will Taylor are an acoustic folk duo from Austin, Texas performing original songs, covers from the American Songbook and instrumentals with a dash of early jazz.

He's jazz, she's folk. Together they weave acoustic music that's sophisticated and old-fashioned at the same time. Her playful and sensual vocals, his Gypsy-like virtuosic violin, with four instruments between them. Original wonder-inspiring songs and instrumentals, plus classics from the American songbook and celtic music world.

O Holy Night

Watchman

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Gesu

In Dulci Jubilo

Carol Of The Bells

Bring A Torch

The Angel Gabriel

Wexford Carol

Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy

All About Strings Attached
Who am I?

I'm Will Taylor. I arrived in Austin in 1973 and spent summers swimming at Barton Springs, played shirtless in the garden of the infamous Armadillo World Headquarters, lived two blocks from the Rome Inn where Stevie Ray Vaughan played the blues weekly. 

I graduated from Austin High and studied viola performance at the UT School of Music in 1987 while playing jazz fusion in 6th street clubs on the weekend.

The music scene has drastically changed since I was a kid growing up at UT's married student housing next to Tom Miller dam.

StringsAttached

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